Grrr! Am I allowed to do this?!

C

CanterTrot

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I was riding with my friend in the stubble field at the back of our yard. These back fields lead to a bridlepath. As we was riding (after having already fallen off and been bucked and bronked all over the field) a woman with 6 dogs that were not on leads was walking up the side of our field, having entered through the bridleway (We are not usually bothered by this as a lot of dog walkers come every day and we have not had any problem). One of these dogs, a lurcher type, came running towards and started herding them and was barking and trying to nip at their heels! My horse was spooking, panicing, and generally trying to get away from the dog he was so scared (he was not lashing out at all at this dog). I was trying to make him stand still but i was having a really hard time doing this. The woman that had the dog made no move to come get her dog back, yet she was standing and shouting for us to stand our horses still! This was impossible with the dog running all over under their feet! After 5 minutes i got off and walked towards the dog telling it to "shoo" in which it then ran off back to its owner and the woman walked off like nothing had happened! I wouldn't have minded except these are OUR fields!

So, my question is: Am I allowed to put a sign up saying: Caution, horses! All dogs must be on leads! - even though there is a bridleway that connects the fields?

I know I should not have gotten off as the dog could have attacked me, although i would rather the dog attack me than my horse, but I was at a loss of what i could do as the dog would not go away and was causing havoc with these horses!
 
Great, hopefully people will start to see that although it is dangerous for dogs to be doing this to the horses, its also more dangerous for the dogs if the horses kick out at them.
 
You are legally obliged to have your dog under 'close control' on a footpath/bridle way, you would perfectly within your rights to put up signs to have dogs on leads, whether or not they take any notice is another matter.
 
There is no obligation for dogs to be on leads on bridleways only that they are under close control the moment they off the bridleway the landowner can request they are on leads .
 
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